Republican Party massively boosted his Chariots Of Fire chances in more ways than one when cruising to victory in the Group Three Hondo Grattan Stakes on Saturday night.
The Cran and Chrissie Dalgety trained pacer even had time to goof around on the home bend before knuckling down to seal an important victory in his Australian debut.
Carter Dalgety crucially found the lead with the classy four-year-old early and from there Republican Party was always going to take plenty of catching.
“I thought I would try to come out with a bit of authority and give the ones inside me no option,” Carter said.
“It probably helped that there weren’t too many others coming out wide.”
“After we found the front we got the next quarter in 30.4sec and a horse of his class was always going to be impossible to run down after that.”
“He actually goofed around a wee bit on the turn and the second horse got up to his girth in the straight.”
“But when he realised it was go-time he kicked away and won it pretty easy.”
“He is a smart animal and he doesn’t run away to win on his own, he races the other horses that come up to him.”
“It was a big thrill to get the job done.”
Republican Party didn’t just quality for the Group One Chariots Of Fire with his win at Menangle.
Gaining automatic entry means the Kentuckiana camp can perfectly plot their path into the race.
“It is a huge plus for us, we can keep him happy until it is time for the big dance,” Cran said.
“Next week there will be plenty of horses going to war trying to get into the race and we will be more than happy to be sitting on the sidelines.”
“There is the option to run him in a race outside the Chariots qualifiers, we will keep that in our back pocket.
“But most likely he will have some solid training runs because he is very much still on the way up.”
“He will take a lot of benefit from that run on Saturday night.”
“We will be timing our run to have him cherry ripe for the Chariots.”
Republican Party stopped the clock in a 1.52.4 mile time on Saturday night.
The four-year-old scorched home in 26.0sec, running the fastest closing 400m of the night.
